Six Korean Pop Artists To Watch After "Gangnam Style"

Korean comedian/musician PSY's track "Gangnam Style" became a global viral hit over the summer and served as an example of the Hallyu, or Korean wave. This week, Schoolboy Records (the crew behind Justin Bieber and Carly Rae Jepsen) picked PSY up for releases in North America, the most high-profile deal for a Korean artist yet.

Until this year, Korean pop had a limited American presence among online scenesters and the Korean-American community.This generation of K-pop exists in a East-meets-West feedback loop with American Top 40, where Korean artists emulate American pop and American artists appropriate Korean culture for their videos. There's even a local group dedicated to the music, and this summer's A-Kon convention showed there's a market for K- and J-pop.

G-Dragon
The frontman of Korean boy band Big Bang (another YGE project), G-Dragon's solo output represents the Korean pop take on Western male-oriented hip-hop. G-Dragon's music shows the curious duality among male pop stars, presenting macho postures (as in the video above for "One of a Kind") against cloying (and occasionally sour) seduction.

Girls' Generation

Girls' Generation
As the highest grossing musical group in South Korea, Girls' Generation is the quintessential example of glitzy, plastic K-pop. In a bid to cross over into the States, all nine members performed on Late Night with David Letterman back in January. Bill Murray was there.